The Creative Consumer

By Kyla Kanz, President, Olive Interactive Design and Marketing
Many people in the advertising business tend to see the world as having two kinds of people—consumers and creators.  Online communication, however, is spinning the media in an exciting new direction—one where the consumers are the creators.
 
Web 2.0 really means two-way communication, and it’s about time.  An armchair anarchist at heart, I’ve always loved the free-for-all potential of the online world. After more than 10 years of running a business focused strictly on interactive communication, the Web is finally becoming truly interactive.
 
One person’s idea, video, blog, app or chat can go global in seconds. Small companies innovate as well as the big ones and often do so faster. Online consumers design their own shoes, jeans or kitchens, make their own commercials, and even create campaign slogans for presidential candidates. Online communities (the buzz term du jour) are thriving, growing, and blending the offline lifestyle with the digital world.
 
The Web user now controls and de facto demands advertiser/consumer collaboration. Novel concept. Traditional advertising has always told consumers what to want, what to have, what to need, what to buy.  Call it grassroots, call it common sense, call it anarchy, but the consumers have taken over the asylum.
 
And savvy enterprises are rolling out the welcome mats. It’s not just about telling and selling, or tracking and measuring, or ”push” marketing anymore. It’s about listening first to what consumers are saying, and then responding with appropriate products, services, and strategy. Quickly.

What’s an ad person to do? The smart ones are engaging in stronger, more compelling, inviting, and collaborative, creative thinking. Face it, the consumer is moving faster than advertisers and their agencies in many respects.  The lower end of the market is already commoditized—you can get logos and Web sites for a couple of hundred dollars, offshore application development for $20 an hour; you can go to You Tube and find home-grown video commercials as thoughtful and creative as many big agency productions.

Today’s advertising professionals need to coach clients to understand and appreciate the power of the collaborative creative process. We must be open and agile. The traditional agency model doesn’t work anymore. It’s time to listen to consumers. In the interactive environment, that means engaging with your clients with usability testing, creating measurable search engine optimization strategies and, ultimately, delivering strong, responsive creative.

Imposing banner ads, or print campaigns slapped onto a Web site that only push information, have had their day. The user experience is the brand and customers know it. It’s time to listen, to apply user-centric design, and apply task-oriented methodology. Make it easy for consumers to participate, to provide feedback, to transact, and to create what they want. And, as advertisers and marketers, we should realize that the only truly unique thing we can offer is creative—not just in design, but creative thinking, strategy, and solutions.

Only then are we being interactive—to create opportunities, to truly meet demand, and to collaborate with the newest creative class—the consumer.